The field of the invention relates generally to systems and methods for surgery and, more particularly, to systems and methods for extracting an object embedded in a biological tissue.
A pacemaker is a surgically implanted device that maintains a heart beat at a regular rate. A lead is a wire that couples a pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) to a heart muscle. A lead extraction is the removal of at least one lead from heart tissue. Endocardial lead extraction may be necessary when at least one of the leads is not working properly. Known causes of lead failure include fracture or other damage to the lead, infection at a site of the lead and/or lead implant, and “exit block,” which occurs when a lead requires more energy to properly function than the pacemaker or ICD can deliver. At least some known methods for endocardial lead extraction are complicated, time-consuming procedures that are associated with significant risk.
Known methods for endocardial lead extraction include using a locking stylet to apply traction force to a body of a lead. More specifically, the locking stylet is coupled to the lead and is manually pulled until the lead is extracted from the heart tissue. Moreover, some known methods require additional force and include using an extraction sheath to apply countertraction force about the body of the lead. More specifically, the sheath slides about the lead and is manually pushed into the scar tissue adhesions.
The combined use of a traction and a countertraction force facilitates shearing the scar tissue adhesions from the lead with a reduced amount of damage to the cardiac tissue surrounding the lead. The combined use of traction force and countertraction force is relatively complicated, and success is highly dependent on the skill and experience of the physician. Known issues related to excess traction and/or countertraction forces include lead damage, arrhythmias, low blood pressure, tissue avulsion, hemothorax, tamponade, and even death. Notably, two elements of the combined use is how hard to pull on the locking stylet and how hard to push the extraction sheath.